The Lies The SEIU Tells Its Members

This week the SEIU sent out an email to its members hoping to drum up some hate against the fast food chain Wendy’s. The email not only had one outright lie, it was also a sad example of how stupid unions think their members really are.

The email starts out as if it is from a Wendy’s employee named Joshua Williams.

Last year, the CEO of Wendy’s took home $16.5 billion dollars while I barely scraped by on $16,000.

The email then goes on to suggest that the fast food industry needs to be unionized so that… oh, I don’t know … maybe so that guys like Mr. Williams can be the ones to take home “$16.5 billion dollars,” or something? Yeah, we all understand that a burger flipper takes exactly the same skills as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. It’s just the same, of course.

Whatever.

But let’s look at the claim of this “Mr. Williams,” if he really exists.

I sure seems a bit crazy that a fast food CEO “took home” $16.5 billion dollars! I mean, some whole countries don’t make so much money. Why, it’s an outrage.

But, wait. $16.5 billion dollars! Really??

No, not even close.

In the Forbes list of American CEOs, the current Wendy’s chief, Emily J. Brolick, is listed with a salary of $338,462 annually and a total compensation package of $4.6 million. Not even a tiny bit close to the lie that the SEIU tried to pass off on its members and potential members. (The AP reported on it here)

Brolick has only been onboard for a short time, so maybe “Joshua Williams” meant the previous CEO? Well, let’s look.

Former Wendy’s CEO Roland Smith left the company in 2011. Before he did he “took home” slightly less than $16.5 billion. Instead, Mr. Smith “took home” a $11.4 million in severance pay. In 2010 he made a paltry $4.9 million.

Gee, that seems a tad less than “$16.5 billion,” doesn’t it?

The union clearly lied.

As one of my friends said in an email, all these unions will do is turn the 99 cent menu into the $99 menu. It would be such a benefit to us all, wouldn’t it?

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, BigJournalsim.com and all Breitbart News' other sites, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, and many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country to discuss his opinion editorials and current events as well as appearing on TV networks such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and various Chicago-based news programs.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book "Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture" which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com.
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